tions to add fertility to the soil and with the 

 exception of bird life there are no animals to 

 contribute to fertilization. Yet in spite of all 

 these apparent drawbacks, there is a luxuri- 

 ance of growth attributable to the moisture 

 and warmth of the climate, and the remark 

 has been made that if a branch was only- 

 stuck in the ground it would grow— a remark 

 not far astray. Situated as Bermuda is, in 

 the swirl of the SargossaSea there is seldom 

 want of rain to add to the moisture, and 

 although there are no fresh-water pools, 

 btreams, or even springs, existing, yet the 

 rain drawn back to the sea ttirough the per- 

 mt^ative rock like a sponge is a constant 

 provider of moisture to the roots of trees and 

 plants alike. 



Evolution is not to be ignored to a certain 

 extent in the production of variety of species, 

 but that evolution would produce a mulberry 

 from a palmetto, or vice versa, is at once 

 ridiculous, and yet both these trees were 

 abundant on the Bermudas as the ear- 

 liest records of wrecked discoverers of these 

 islands prove, and to-day the number of 

 species or even the existence of certain plants 

 in the profuse vegetation so moist a climate 

 favours, is probably not known. To ascertain 

 and divide into different sections what are 

 actually indigenous, what have gradually so 

 spread in the course of time as to be next to 

 indigenous, what have been accidentally 

 introduced or brought in for ornamental pur- 

 poses, and which have since spread ovi^r the 

 soil, is a difficult undertaking. Those which 

 have gradually crept out of cultivation, and 

 which maybe termed "escapes", having in 

 their new condition assumed wild growth 

 characteristics, can be traced, and one of the 

 objects of these pages is so to classify the 



